NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, climate change, educational development, One Health

Objective(s): To identify the competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) needed for success in climate change-related employment positions, and in turning climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge into action.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5194. The objective of this work is to identify the competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) needed for success in climate change-related employment positions, and in turning climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge into action. This study is needed to better prepare future One Health professionals to tackle complex problems that lie at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health, such as climate change. This research involves one virtual focus group with people from the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon working in climate change-related employment positions. Organizations from which individuals could be recruited include, for example, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Government of Canada, and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. The focus group will be conducted online using Microsoft Teams and will last about 2 hours. This session will ideally take place sometime between September and December 2022. Participants will then be invited to provide feedback on the draft One Health evaluation framework that is developed from this project (expected late 2022/early 2023). This research uses focus group methodology to obtain a range of perspectives from people working on climate change. Climate change professionals in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and Western Canada have already participated. A series of 8 open-ended questions will be used to facilitate discussion with participants about their experiences and thoughts on the competencies required for success in the field of climate change. These sessions will be recorded to facilitate transcription, at which time the participants names will be deidentified to “Participant 1”, “Participant 2”, etc. The transcriptions will be used to conduct thematic analysis to identify common themes within and across the sessions. The data from this study will be stored in the Principal Investigators home office on an audio-recording device and a research computer. Following the session, the audio- and video-recordings will be deleted once the transcriptions have been created and validated. This research will allow the team to revise the One Health competency framework to ensure relevancy for climate change mitigation and adaptation training. The goal is to improve the ability of program graduates to tackle complex problems, like climate change, at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health. The incorporation of the experiences and perspectives from professionals living and working in the Northwest Territories is imperative as some of the most obvious effects of climate change are seen in Canada’s North. The professionals that partake in this work will receive a focus group summary about 1 week following the session to ensure the researcher gathered an accurate representation of the session. The knowledge generated through this project will also be shared via scientific conferences, peer-reviewed articles, and in Carrie McMullen’s PhD thesis. Potential participants will be invited to partake in this study via email using publicly available contact information. Within this email, there will be a link to a Qualtrics survey where the participant will be able to provide online informed consent to partake in the study. For those that consent, a follow-up email will be sent to arrange a date and time for the focus group session. These participants will partake in the online focus group, and will receive a short summary of the session via email about 1 week following the focus group. Any interested participants or organizations can request a presentation of the focus group results when they become available. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from October 21, 2022 to December 31, 2022.